Emergency CallWorks CallStation eases Waukesha County move from analog to digital while preparing for next-generation 9-1-1 dispatching
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – June 9, 2016 – With 79 percent more states and territories adopting a plan for next-generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) since 2014, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, officials realized it was time to upgrade their analog 9-1-1 communications to a proven call-taking solution built for the future. Leaders of the county of 400,000 people just northwest of Milwaukee chose Emergency CallWorks CallStation, a browser-based platform from Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI), which combines call taking, incident management and mapping systems into a single platform. CallStation also gets Waukesha County ready for NG9-1-1, which will allow citizens to send more digital information such as texts and pictures through the 9-1-1 network and, eventually, directly to first responders.
As the State of Wisconsin continues toward adoption of a formal NG9-1-1- plan, Waukesha County is already seeing benefits from key features of CallStation such as the interactive map that allows users to quickly determine the caller’s location before answering. As a community with a high volume of commercial transportation and automobile traffic, a significant accident could generate multiple calls from mobile phones and landlines for the same incident. In this instance, CallStation allows dispatchers to prioritize calls and dedicate resources to potentially unrelated 9-1-1 calls. Previously, call takers would have had to answer the call in the order it was received.
“Public safety dispatchers are often the first point of contact when citizens have an emergency, so immediately knowing where the call is coming from can save time and potentially save lives,” said Gary Bell, director, Waukesha County Communications. “CallStation features such as the interactive map allow users to quickly provide details from the 9-1-1 caller to public safety personnel en route to an incident or accident.”
Another time-saving feature of CallStation is the ability for one-touch transfer of calls. In the past when a caller reached Waukesha’s public safety answering point (PSAP) but needed to be transferred to another department or neighboring PSAP, multiple steps were needed depending on the type of call received. In 2015 Waukesha transferred approximately 23,000 of the more than 328,000 calls received by the seven PSAPs. The ability to transfer those callers with a single click saves call takers precious seconds they can allocate to emergency situations.
“Emergency CallWorks CallStation helps police, fire and other first responders better manage critical incidents by allowing more information to flow from the public to emergency personnel,” said Tom Guthrie, vice president, Motorola Solutions Smart Public Safety Solutions. “Waukesha County recognized the advantage of implementing software that supports older analog systems and facilitates a smooth migration to NG9-1-1 without incurring a major expense.”
Waukesha County 9-1-1 staff attended the Emergency CallWorks Online University before implementing the new software to help ease the transition. Classes provided an in-depth discussion and use of CallStation, which enabled call takers, on their schedule, to become familiar with the new system and reduce the time spent with a live trainer from a traditional daylong session to just two hours.
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Visit Motorola Solutions at Booth 201 and learn more about Emergency CallWorks at the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) Conference June 12-15 in Indianapolis.
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